In the Belly of the Beast
by WolvenWindNinja
Summary: Tails goes missing and the only clue is a letter from Robotnik. Now Sonic must confront the Doctor's new robot to save his best friends life; but there's more to this mechanical monster than Sonic ever dreamed.
1. Long day

**WWN: I'm back this time with a sonic fic. **

**Darkside:****big wup. **

**WWN: *rolls eyes* anyway as I was saying thi-**

**Darkside:**** the big plot twist of the story is-**

**WWN Shaddup! don't ruin it! *cuffs Darkside upside the head***

**Darkside****: make me!**

**WWN: *pulls out duck tape* you where saying?**

**Darkside:**** no! not the duck tape!**

**WWN: that's better. now as I was saying this is my first sonic fic so if anyone has any advice/critique I'd be happy to hear it.**

**Disclaimer: I'm only gonna say this once, the sonic crew does not belong to me. if it did, well then I wouldn't be writing fanfics about it. **

**________________________________________-Chapter 1-______________________________________**

It was a beautiful day on Mobius, the sky was streaked with orange and red from the setting sun; the ocean reflected the red and gold hues, creating a captivating scene. A small two person biplane named _Tornado_, flew low over the ocean at high speed, piloted by a small twin tailed fox, while standing atop the wing of the biplane was a blue hedgehog. The duo were none other than the famous blue blur Sonic the hedgehog and his best friend Miles 'Tails' Prower.

Sonic and Tails had taken the day off to go visiting their friends: Amy Rose, Shadow the hedgehog, Rouge the bat, the chaotix crew :Vector the crocodile, Charmy the bee And Espio the chameleon. The duo where currently flying back from visiting Knuckles the echidna on the Floating islands.

"Tails let's head for Knothole." Sonic called to his friend over the roar of the Tornado's engine.

"Sonic, let's head home. It's getting late, and we're pretty low on gas." Tails called back.

"Do we have enough fuel to go visit sally and the gang?"

"I don't think so Sonic. I think we have just enough to get back home."

Sonic sighed, well Tails had a point, it was getting rather late; the sun had already begun to set. "Yeah, in any case I think it'd be pretty hard to pilot at night." Sonic joked.

So they flew back to Tails house, chatting idly about their visits.

* * *

Else where Dr. Ivo Robotnik was busy planning and scheming, or he would have been had he not been throwing a tantrum.

"That blasted hedgehog is always foiling my plans!" Robotnik roared. Snively, who was busying himself at his computer station, controlled the urge to roll his eyes. His master was always had these tantrums after Sonic once again stopped the obese Dr. from taking over Mobius.

"Every time I come up with a new destructive robot, Sonic destroys it! Doesn't he care how much work goes into those robots?! Hours and hours of my time spent pushing my amazing intelligence to it's limits!" Robotnik slammed his fist against the arm of his throne, his teeth grinding together, "He doesn't care about the work or destroying the robot. But what if he did care about the robot...." A new idea began to form in Robotniks' head.

"That's it!" a large, evil smile spread across Robotniks' face as he leapt to his feet.

"What is it sir?" Snively asked, for once genuinely curious.

"I shall create a robot that Sonic can't destroy!" Robotnik exclaimed as he began to pace slowly.

"But sir, you've already tried that. The indestructible robots armor was too thick for Sonic to cut through but the robot couldn't move an inch."

"No you imbicile! I'm talking about a robot that Sonic won't _want_ to destroy." Robotniks' pacing increased in tempo.

"I'm sorry sir, but you've lost me."

Robotnik turned to face Snively so abruptly it startled the younger man "Don't worry my foolish lad, it will all become clear soon." with that he turned and headed for the door.

"Where are you going sir?" Snively asked as his master reached the extra wide door.

"I'm going to my lab, and send Metal Sonic down, I have some work for him."

* * *

Sonic and Tails reached the foxes house just as the last rays of sun faded away. After Sonic helped Tails guide the Tornado into it's hanger, the two went into the foxes house for a snack before Sonic had to go home.

They sat at the kitchen table, talking while enjoying chilidogs and cold sodas. The tide of the conversation had turned to visiting everyone in Knothole.

"So how about we go visit Sally tomorrow?" the hedgehog inquired around a bite of chilidog.

"I thought you where going to help Amy paint her living room and kitchen in the morning." Tails took a drink of his soda as Sonic's palm connected with his forehead with a loud _smack_.

"You're right, I completely forgot about that!" Sonic sighed, "I guess it's too late to cancel, huh?"

The orange fox smiled," Yup." he sighed, his thought turning towards the red biplane "It would be nice if we still had that chaos emerald, then we wouldn't have to worry about the Tornado running out of fuel."

"Yeah but Robuttnik had to go and have Metal steal it. Wonder what he's doing with it?" Sonic mused as he finished his second chilidog.

"Should we get the emerald back soon?" Tails asked.

Sonic smiled, "Probably. We'll do that after we're done visiting everyone. I'm pretty sure Rouge has some blueprints of 'Buttniks' base."

"So why don't we go visiting day after tomorrow?" suggested the younger fox.

"Sounds good kido, what are you gonna do tomorrow while I help Amy?"

Tails thought for a moment, drinking the last of his soda. "Well I do need to give the Tornado a tune up, and I need to stock up on chilidogs" he said with a chuckle.

The hedehog laughed, " Have fun with that." He stood and headed for the door "Well I should motor home, see ya later."

"Good night Sonic." Tails called after the hedgehog. He gave a large yawn, _time for bed_, he thought as the fox headed for his room, turning off lights as he went.

* * *

Sonic arrived early at Amy's house to help paint; Amy had been planning to repaint her living room for a while and she decided to drag Sonic in to help.

"Oh Sonic it's so nice of you to help me! It would have taken forever to clear the rooms and paint by my self." Amy gushed.

"Yeah nice." Sonic mumbled; he was in a foul mood. Amy had left her hero to rearrange the furniture and appliances to the center of the living room and kitchen. He groaned in relief as, with a final shove, the refrigerator screeched to a stop next to the stove and table.

"Good work Sonic. Now we just have to layout the plastic and put tape around the molding and...." the blue blur groaned quietly.

_I hope Tails is having more fun_, Sonic thought as he tuned out Amy who droned on and on.

* * *

**WWN: sorry the first chapters a little slow, it'll pick up soon XD**

**Edited- now onto ch 2!**


	2. Danger

**WWN: sorry it's a short chapter, the next will be a bit longer XD**

**Dark side:**** *muffled yelling* **

**WWN: Shaddup! I don't wanna hear it! **

**Dark Side:**** *more muffled yelling* **

**WWN: anyway back to the show!**

**--------------------------------------chapter 2-----------------------------------------------------**

Tails had woken up late the next day, since he didn't really have much planned. He pondered going over and saving his best friend form Amy, but then thought about the pink hedgehog gushing over Sonics' heroic exploits, and decided he had more than enough work to keep him busy. He ate a small breakfast; butter and jellied toast with a glass of orange juice. Tails then went out to the Tornadoes hanger to give his plane a desperately needed tune up.

* * *

Elsewhere Robotnik was busy working on his latest scheme; he had been working non-stop on the new robot since the idea first hit him. So far it was a large pile of welded metal and circuitry, but slowly it was beginning to take shape. Metal Sonic had been ordered to start creating the programming for the bot, Robotnik had been very detailed on the specifications for the hard wiring, and was being watched carefully. When Metal had finished that, Robotnik told him to work on the outer shell of the robot, once again being carefully scrutinized.

Robotnik smiled "In another six hours it should be done!" he exclaimed. The rotund genius was rather proud of himself, he had begun planning immediately for his newest creation, and now it was only a few hours from completion! It was the fastest he'd ever created such a masterpiece. A large evil grin spread across his face, once it was done, Sonic would regret the day he dared cross Dr. Ivo Robotnik.

Several hours later Robotnik was standing in his lab, staring at his finished masterpiece. It was magnificent! The evil smile that had been present through out the entire project amazingly grew wider.

"Now, it requires only one thing before I intend to release it upon that reached hedgehog." he turned towards his metal creation. "You know what I need Metal, don't return until you have it." Robotnik ordered the mechanical hedgehog.

Metal nodded "yessss, masster" he hissed as the robot turned and left the lab.

* * *

Tails was finishing up with the Tornado when Sonic zoomed into the planes hanger looking exausted.

The two friends were currently sitting in the fox's living room talking about their day. The blue blur told Tails of the horrors he'd experienced while helping their pink friend. The Young fox was very sympathetic towards Sonic, he knew how bad Amy could get.

"So then she tells me after we're done painting and have the furniture put back, that since we were on a role we should rearrange the furniture! After I had just put everything back in it's freaking original place!" Sonic sighed, slumping back in his chair, tails nodding in sypathy.

The hedgehog looked at the clock on the wall. "Wow it's ten o'clock already? I'd better be going. After all we're leaving bright and early in the morning for knothole right?"

"Yup," Tails chirped up, "what time are you coming by?"

Our hero considered it for a moment, then said "Probably around eight-ish."

"See you in the morning" the fox said as Sonic headed for the door.

"You got it little buddy, bright and early" he replied as he closed the door.

Tails yawned as he stood. He locked the front door and made a b-line for the stairs; once upstairs he brushed his teeth and went to the computer in his bedroom to check his e-mails before turning in for the night. He had just sat down at his desk when a knock came from the front door. _That's weird, who could that be at this time of night?_ he thought as he made his way downstairs and to the front door. He looked out the peephole but it was too dark to see the person clearly but from the look of the figure the younger fox guessed it was Sonic. Tails wondered why the hedgehog knocked instead of using his spare key as he unlocked the door.

Tails had begun to open the door when it was violently pushed wide open. The light form the hallway illuminated the room enough for the orange kit to see the person. He gasped and jumped back. Standing just outside tails door was Metal Sonic. The robots' eyes illuminated, glowing a bright blood red.

Tails backed up another step, then turned to slam the door, but Metal jumped forward and stopped the door easily with one metal alloy hand. Metal swept his other clawed hand out, trying to grab the young fox, but Tails leaped backward, out of Metals' reach.

The kit ran, avoiding the lunging robot; Metals' claws dug into one of Tails' overstuffed armchairs, throwing the pure white, feathery gore into the air. Metal made for another grab, Tails jumped over the couch that separated the entrance from the living room. Metal simply overturned the piece of furniture as he charged the young fox. The fox kit threw a lamp aimed at the robots head ,Metal simply lifted his arms over his face to absorb the blow.

Tails used the distraction to dash for the stairs; once upstairs he planned to use his twin tails to fly out his bedroom window. Metal followed the small fox up the stairs, running his claws up the wall as he went. Tails made it to his room, slamming the door behind him he leaped for the bedroom window. Metal knocked down the door with a loud _Bang!_Using his thrusters, Metal zoomed past Tails effectively cutting off his escape.

Once again Metals' claws tore through the air, aimed at the fox, who attempted to duck. This time the metal claws connected and Tails gasped as the sharp talons ripped the tender flesh of his shoulder. Grasping his shoulder, the fox ducked under Metals' arm and ran out the broken door. Blood splattered the tattered walls as Tails dashed down the steps, Metal hot on his heels. The second his feet touched the floor the kit sprinted for the open front door. Suddenly a heavy metal body collided with his legs, and the young fox went down hard on his stomach. Metal sat on Tails back, his metal knees resting on the foxes outstretched arms, effectively pinning the kit on the ground.

"Do not worry. My massster wantss you alive." Metal said as he retrieved a syringe full of sedative from a small compartment in his leg. He buried the needle deep in Tails leg and pushed down the plunger in one swift movement. The kit gasped as a tingling crept it's way up his thigh from the point the syringe had pierced his flesh. After a few moments he could feel his sight becoming blurred. "Now sssleep" Metal said, dropping the empty syringe on ther floor. Tails tried as hard as he could to fight the effects of the fast acting sedative, tried to throw the heavy robot off his back, but his attempts were in vain. It was a mater of moments before the young fox slipped into a deep, drug induced slumber.

* * *

Sonic left his house early the next morning, heading for his best friends house as fast as his feet could carry him. He arrived moments later, walking to the front door he pulled out his copy of tails house key. Sonic raised his hand to unlock the door but froze; the door was slightly ajar. _That's weird,_ he thought as he pushed open the door. He gasped at the sight before him; Tails living room was trashed: the sofa was upturned, the arm chair was shredded, feathers were everywhere, tears adorned the walls and on the floor was a puddle of blood.

Alarmed Sonic ran searching through the first floor for his young friend. "Tails! Tails ! Hey!" he yelled as he finished his lap around the downstairs. The living room was the only room trashed, the hedgehog noted as as he made for the stairs. Tear marks and blood decorated the stairs and the wall, and continued up into the second story hallway. He ran to Tails room calling the foxes name, the bedroom was hanging by one hinge. Rushing into the room, the blue hero saw that it was as it should be: clean and unmarked aside from a few drops of blood. Running back down to the living room, Sonic froze as he noticed something he had missed before: a piece of paper, held fast to the wall next to the front door by a knife. He walked over and wrenched the knife from the wall, sliding the paper off the knife and read it. The letter read:

_Sonic,_

_Your young friend has been captured by Metal Sonic for me. Come to the marble ruins, by noon today and fight my newest robot. Come or forfeit the foxes life!!_

_-Dr. Ivo Robotnik._

* * *

**DunDunDUUUUNN!! **

**EDIT* well now that this chapter is more satisfactory, it's onto the next one! By the way, yes I did change it from Mecha to Metal.**


	3. meeting at the ruins

**WWN: Well here's the third chapter of belly in the beast. Enjoy and review if ya want ^^**

**Dark side: Yay...**

**WWN: Thanks for the enthusiasm/sarcasm.**

**Dark Side: No problem, it's all in the job description.**

-Chapter 3-

Sonic stared at the note, clutching the small fragment of paper so hard his hand began to shake. _Tails..._ he thought as he turned and headed for the door, the note now crumpled in his right fist. He stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind him. Amy rose was walking down the street, towards the young foxes' humble abode; the pink hedgehog was on her way to see the duo off to knothole for the day. She beamed as she noticed the blue blur marching down tails' front path.

"Hey, Sonic! I was just coming to see you and Tails before you left, I just wanted to say goodb..." she broke off as her crush stopped in front of her and she took in Sonics distraught expression. "Sonic! What's wrong!" Sonic simply handed Amy the poor crumpled note.

She was silent for a moment as she read the neatly typed note, and gasped as the information sunk in.

"You're not going are you?" She demanded, horrified at the thought of her love fighting another robot.

"Amy I have to, that egghead has Tails, and I don't plan on leaving him at the mercy of that obese lunatic." Sonic didn't meet her eyes as he quietly spoke.

"Then I'm coming with you, he's my friend too!" Amy exclaimed.

He stared at her like she'd grown another head "Are you crazy! It's too dangerous!"

Amy smiled, produced her large red hammer and brought it forcefully down on Tails' neighbors front lawn, leaving a foot deep depression. "Don't worry , I'm the kind of girl who can hold her own in a fight" For once sonic didn't question her.

Sonic let loose an exasperated sigh "Fine but we're leaving now, we don't have a lot of time to get to the marble ruins." He picked up the pink hedgehog bridal style and took off at high speed. "Shouldn't we get some help?" She yelled over the roar of nebulous turbulence created by the super sonic speed.

"No time. in any case it's just another crappy Robotnik robot. I'll just use my spindash to saw the stupid thing in half if I have to." He grimaced, certain he'd get his best friend back. Besides, destroying the stupid robot would be a piece of cake.

Sonic and Amy arrived at the marble ruins at eleven o'clock, Robotnik was already there. He was floating above the ground in his hover ship, Metal was standing to the right of the fat doctor on the ground below. On the other side of Robotnik was, what Sonic presumed, the 'new robot': it stood ten feet high on two long, funny shaped legs. As the hero looked at it he noticed it had a rather animalistic shape: the legs where shaped in such a way that it could both stand upright and on all fours, the robots head was shaped similarly to a dogs, but with a smaller muzzle, and larger 'ears' perched nearly on the top of it's head. It had a tail that was long and almost diamond shaped, the eyes glowed an iridescent purple. it was painted blood red with black on the legs and the tips of the ears, the underside and the tip of it's tail where silver; long sharp claws glinted menacingly in the late morning sun light. The robot, Sonic noted, was covered in spikes; sharp angles adorned the mechanized menace from it's shoulders to the end of its red and silver tail. Tails was nowhere in sight.

"As expected hedgehog, you're early, and you brought a friend. How nice." Robotnik said, breaking the turbulent silence. "What do you think of my latest creation? Amazing isn't it? His name is-"

"Cut the crap egghead, where's Tails?" The azure hedgehog demanded.

Robotnik smiled "Why he's here right now, don't you trust me? Fight my robot and I'll tell you where he is."

"Tell me NOW!" Sonic growled.

As the sick doctor spoke his malevolent smile grew more wicked " How about I show you?" Robotnik snapped his fingers. Sonic watched wearily as, with a hiss, the front panels of the large robot pushed out and drew to the sides; sitting inside the chest of the robot was Tails, there were numerous tubes and wires sprouting from him. The young fox was strapped to the inside of the robot with thick steel bands around his waist, wrists, ankles, and neck. A thick plate of glass separated the fox from the outside world.

"You bast-!" the azure hedgehog growled, he attempted to charge the obese doctor, but Amy held him back.

Robotnik laughed "I see you don't think very highly of my idea. I needed a robot that you couldn't destroy, and so I made one!" he laughed harder.

Sonic scoffed at the fat dictator "I'll just cut Tails out of that stupid thing"

Robotnik wagged his finger while making a tisking sound. "Now Sonic, I should warn you, every time you hurt Voulchine, your little friend will feel the pain as well, and if you destroy my robot, well lets just say I hope you enjoy funerals." he gave a deep throaty chuckle.

"You're a sick man!" Amy gasped horrified, Sonic couldn't agree more.

Robotniks' smile never faded, "If you want your friend back, then surrender and be roboticized!" Sonic leaped out of his friends grasp, and sent a well aimed Spindash at the insane doctor. Metal sonic flew into the air and with a powerful side kick sent the blue blur hurtling backwards into the ground just left of his pink friend.

With a curse sonic removed himself from the newly formed deep crater. "Sonic! Are you okay?" Amy asked, concern saturated every syllable. He only nodded, rubbing the large foot shaped bruise on his right cheek.

Laughter redirected their attention back to Robotnik. He was laughing harder than ever, holding onto his rotund form as it shook with the force of his merriment. When his outburst settled to a steady flow of chuckles he said "It is no use hedgehog, Metal will always protect me. Your opponent today is neither me nor Metal, it's Voulchine." he pointed to the robot in question.

Sonic looked over at the large robot, his and Tails' gazes locked. he saw the turmoil of emotions that played in the aqua eyes of the young fox: fear, uncertainty, anger, desperation, panic, and above all concern. Concern for the life of the blue hedgehog. Sonic wondered if the same emotions were playing in the depths of his green eyes. He swore that moment he would free Tails from that reached machine, so they could go back to his house to enjoy cold chilidogs and flat soda again. But first Robotnik had to pay.

The fat doctor distorted his face into the largest cruelest imitation of a smile he could muster. "Now shall we begin?" he snapped his fingers; the panels in Voulchines' chest resumed their previous position with a hiss. The robot lowered its' self onto its front limbs and let loosed a horrifying metallic growl.

"Amy, go hide" Sonic said. She started to protest but he cut her off "This is between me and that mechanized menace. Please go hide." Grudgingly she complied, running behind a nearby large marble boulder.

"Voulchine! Attack!" With the command from it's master given, the robotic canine crouched and sprung; steel claws seeking the flesh of the enemy.

Sonic dodged the initial strike, and readied himself for a Spindash but froze: he'd hurt Tails! Voulchine prepared for another umbrage, _This sucks, this really sucks! _Sonic thought, readying himself as Voulchine charged once more.

**dun dun duuunnn! I actually drew a picture of Voulchine, I'll put up a link when I get it on the net.**


	4. Fight!

**WWN: Chapter four. 'nuff said. Um just so you all know I am very swamped with my homework and senior project seeing as it's my senior year and all. That along with mild writers block is why it took so long to update.**

***EDIT* My friend suggested I rewrite this chapter and get rid of the whole "bleu mane" thing so here you are.**

--------------------------------Chapter 4---------------------------------------------

"Voulchine! Attack!"

Voulchine had lunged once already, Sonic the hedgehog dodged and readied to attack, but he hesitated; attacking meant hurting his best friend. He gave a start as he went to dodge Voulchines second umbrage, but was for once, too slow. With a flash of steel, the robots claws tore flesh, fresh blood decorated the lush grass. The hedgehogs hesitation had allowed the robot to deliver four shallow cuts to the blue heroes' forearm.

Sonic dodged as the robots claws fell again, seeking flesh. It missed and Voulchines claws dug four deep furrows into the emerald grass. Sonic was inwardly referring to the fat doctor with every insulting name he could think of. If Tails wasn't trapped in that damn robot, he could have destroyed it and been on his marry way by now.

"Go Sonic! You can do it! I know you can!" Amy shouted from her hiding place among the ivory colored marble boulders. Normally sonic would welcome the cheering; after all it was cool having your own cheering section. But today he just wanted the female hedgehog to shut up; the cheering was becoming increasingly distracting. The red and black robot was mercilessly continuing its umbrage, jumping and running around their make shift arena, searching for an opening in the hedgehog's defense.

Metal Sonic watched the battle with mild amusement. His master had really thought of a brilliant plan this time. Normally Sonic would use his infamous Spindash on the 'bot, ending the fight almost instantly. But this time the hedgehog would hurt or even kill his closest friend if he attempted such a daring move. The robotic hedgehog smiled as his living counterpart leapt into the air while trying avoiding the red robots claws, only to be smacked back down to earth by Voulchines' spiked tail. The sight of the Blue blurs blood falling like crimson rain onto the emerald grass brought the robot hedgehog great pleasure. Metal was brought out of his episotical reverie by his masters boisterous laughter.

"Look at how that reached oversized pincushion struggles! How amusing!" thoroughly enjoying the epic battle, Dr. Robotnik Laughed again. Until his hovercraft was knocked out of the air as a resulting blow from a huge red hammer wielded by an angry pink hedgehog.

"Stop laughing at him!" the irate hedgehog yelled. Metal turned his attention back to the fight that continued in the makeshift arena.

Sonic cursed as he rose to his feet again, _How is that stupid machine is keeping up with me!? It's almost like it's... No it couldn't...could it?_ Sonic braced himself as Voulchine leaped, swiping his talons forward. Sonic jumped over the claws, onto the arm and up onto the machines back. Voulchine bucked wildly, putting every rodeo horse to shame. Holding onto the robots shoulder spikes, the blue hero held on for dear life, trying not to impale himself on the fox robots numerous spikes. Suddenly the robot stopped bucking, Sonic yelped as the large silver and red spiked tail flew towards his head. He ducked as the metallic appendage flew once, twice, three times over his small body, trying to hit and dislodge him. A thought struck Sonic then. The tail fell straight down over the blue hedgehog, Sonic jumped onto the head, waiting for the tail to impact the robo-foxes back. The tail landed, the hero jumped, landed. Voulchine sensed the creature on its tail and flung his tail, hard.

Sonic flew through the air, launched by the foxes tail, towards Amy, hammer in hand. "Amy! Up high!" he yelled. Understanding painted the pink hedgehogs face. She swung her hammer back as Sonic drew nearer. The second his feet lighted on the red hammer, Amy used every ounce of her strength to launch Sonic nearly a hundred and fifty feet straight into the air.

Sonic smiled, still ascending, as he found his target: the large red and black fox-like machine far below on the ground. Sonic was about to try something reckless and possibly stupid. Hopefully so much so that it would catch the fox robot off guard. He was going to throw a well aimed Spindash at the armor seam along the robots back. And on the way through Voulchine, snatch Tails from within the bot. If he was fast enough, hopefully Tails would only feel a minimal amount of pain. At the moment he didn't relish the fact that he was about to hurt his best friend, but if it was going to save the young fox, he was willing to give it a shot.

Sonic, wasting no time, began to spin right before he hit the apex of his flight. He made minute adjustments and re-adjusted his aim right before he hit maximum velocity.

When maximum velocity was achieved, Sonic felt his ascent begin to slow. He didn't bother to make himself fall early. He knew gravity would do the work for him.

Amy watched anxiously from the ground. The pink hedgehog had no idea what Sonic was planning. Still she watched, wringing her hands with worry. Amy closed her eyes for a moment. _please let this work!_ She thought. Turning her attention back upwards towards the airborne hegdehog she screamed.

As Sonic began to fall, he heard Amy's faint scream from far below. He was about to shout out a question when a shadow fell over the revolving hedgehog. His eyes widend; Voulchine had leaped above him. The robot fell forward into a flip and brought the full fury of its razor spiked tail down on the defensless hedgehog. He plummeted to the earth, closely followed by the mechanical menace. The blue hero landed, hard, on the ruble struined ground. Voulchine hovered over the injured hedgehog; a single clawed paw pinioned the hero to the bottom of the newly created crater. The mechanical fox lowered its head, placing its three inch long fangs within inches if Sonics throat.

"Bravo!" cheered Robotnik as he moved to hover over his machine. "I must say, this was a very enjoyable trial period! Normally I would take this rare opportunity to have Voulchine finish you, Sonic, but I must admit it was very entertaining watching you struggle and fight your best friend! So just this once I will let you live, just so I can watch you suffer even longer!" The sadistic obese doctor laughed. He snapped his fingers and Voulchine pulled back to stand behind his master. "Until we meet again hegdehog!" with that the bad doctor, Voulchine, and Metal Sonic took to the air, leaving the battered and broken hedgehog laying in a huge crater.

"Sonic!" Amy yelled, running over to her object of affection laying in the large hole. She gently shook his arm, he groaned and placed a gloved hand over his eyes. He was covered in numerous cuts of varying severity, and blood. Lots of blood. "Are you okay? Sonic?"

"No, I couldn't save him..." he groaned. Amy noticed something moving down the side of Sonics face. It was a single silver tear.

"Don't worry Sonic we'll save him. Somehow." Sonic Stood up suddenly, startling his pink friend. "Sonic! Don't move! You're injured!" He didn't listen, and started to climb out of the crater followed closely by a worried Amy. "Sonic! Where are you going?" she demanded.

He didn't look at her as he replied.

"To make some phone calls."

**There you have it, chapter 4. fight scene with sonic^^ yay! **

**Wanna see a picture of Voulchine? go to my site for the link **


	5. House call

**WWN: So here we have the fifth chapter of **_**In the Belly of the Beast**_**. Sorry for the slow updates, but school's been kind of hectic. Eh and I've taken up tennis, which I've never played in my life. So Since I've been at practice almost every night, I haven't had a whole lot of "me time". Well tennis isn't the whole reason. As usual writers block, it seems, strikes after every chapter is finished!! I hate writers block, so much. Now that my rant is over, onto the story!**

**Dark side:****Yay.**

**No reviews last chapter, is that good?...**

**Disclaimer: you know the routine, I don't own blah blah blah....**

-------------------------------Chapter 5--------------------------------------

Several hours later Sonic sat at the head of his kitchen table trying to call the crowded room to silence. When he and Amy had returned to his house, he refused to let Amy patch up his wounds and had marched straight to the phone and called everyone he could get a hold of. Now all his friends were in an uproar, trying to figure out why they had been called to this abrupt meeting in the hedgehogs kitchen. Sitting at the table and loitering around the room was Shadow the hedgehog, Knuckles the Echidna, Rouge the bat, The Chaotix crew: Vector, Charmy and Espio, and since Sally could not come, she sent Antoine and Bunny as her proxy.

"Guys! SHUT UP!" Sonic finally yelled, standing and slamming his fists on the table. The room fell silent at his outburst; Amy huffed agitatedly and gently but forcefully pushed him back into the chair to finish cleaning him up.

"All right, now that I've got your attention, lets get down to business. Now I bet you're all wondering why I called you on such short notice." Most of the guests nodded silently, Shadow the only exception. "The reason: Tails was kidnapped by Robotnik. I know you're thinking 'what's the big whup, he's been kidnapped before'. Well this time Robotnik's sunk to a new low. He's created a robot that will kill Tails if we destroy it." It was silent for a moment before Sonic continued. "If we hurt the robot, Tails gets hurt too. It appears there is no way to get Tails out of the thing without killing him." Bunnie spoke up then, "If that's the case sugarhog, it seems like there's nothing we can do to help Tails. Anything we do to help would end up hurting the lil' sugar instead."

Sonic smiled wagging a finger, "That's why we have to strike now." Bunnie looked confused, "You lost me, Hun ."

Sonic stood again, ignoring Amy's outraged complaints and began pacing in front of the table. "Do you really think Buttniks' gonna leave him in the stupid thing twenty four/seven? He's gotta take Tails out of it at one point or another. All we have to do is figure out when Tails isn't in Voulchine and sneak in to steal him away."

He looked to Rouge. "Can you find some way to hack into his surveillance system so we can figure out when to strike?"

The white bat only smiled. "I'm way ahead of ya." she said as she reached into her bag, and pulled out a small black box.

"You've already hacked his system?" Espio asked. Rouge shook her head, fiddling with the box as she spoke. "Nope. I've got something better."

Knuckles chucked, "And what are you going to do with that little box? Throw it at Egghead?" He was silenced with a glare from Rouge that clearly said_ I'll deal with you later,_before going back to fiddling with the box. "Ah-ha!" she exclaimed as she pushed a small hidden trigger on the palm sized cube. As soon as she pushed it, she placed the box in the center of the table. Suddenly a green light flew from the top of the cube, and there sitting above the device was a holographic three demetional blueprint of Dr. Robotniks lair.

Bunnie whistled softly, "That's mighty impressive."

"How'd you manage to get your hands on that?" Vector asked, amazed with the hologram. Rouge smiled at Vector and shrugged. "I did what I do best. I stole it when I raided Robotniks vault for some chaos emeralds. It was just laying inside; I didn't know what it was, but I figured it was valuable so I took the opportunity and stole it."

Antoine rose his hand. "Mais, Mademoiselle Rouge, I am confused. 'Ow is theis 'olographic blueprint suppose to 'elp us. We need to see vere Tails is." _I can never understand a single damned thing he says with that stupid accent_ Shadow though as he silently sat in the corner.

Rouge winked at the Coyote. "Watch this" she reached over the table and tapped the hologram. Immediately colored points of light appeared around and inside the hologram. Most of the color splotches were red, but there were a few blue ones. "You see this blueprint is a live feed hologram; meaning it uses infrared and motion sensors to show where any robots or people are in the building at this moment. The red dots are robots and the blue are living creatures, in this case Robotnik and Snively." she said as she gestured to the different dots. "Robotnik is in his workshop with Snively." Rouge reached through the hologram and tapped a room in the center of the hologram with two blue dots inside. The hologram zoomed into the room, which was detailed enough to see the miniature computers and worktables. "And Tails is most likely here, in the holding cells." She tapped one of the roomes deeper inside the base, which zoomed in at once. The room was bare. "Unfortunatly there are no infared or motion sensors. Robotnik uses security cameras in the cells. But once Tails' outside the room we'll be able to get a read on him."

The blue hedgehog smiled, sitting back down. "Finally we're gettin somewhere!" He leaned forward, elbows resting on the table, a serious look upon his face.

"Now let's figure out how exactly we're going to save Tails."

* * *

Tails sat alone in a cell deep within Robotniks lair in Robotropolis, his back to the wall and his head on his knees. The collar on his neck was digging painfully into his collar bone. It had only been an hour or so since Metal Sonic had drug him, literally, down here and had thrown him unmercifully into the metal cell. He'd fixed the collar around Tails' neck and gave a single warning "_Try to leave this cell or remove the collar, and it will explode."_ Tails had simply nodded. So now here he sat, trying to be strong. His mind wondered back to the events of the day.

Tails had woken up in a cage next to Voulchine inside Robotniks lab. When Robotnik noticed he was conscious the deranged doctor wasted no time diving into an hour long monologue about how feeble escape was, and how he was going to destroy Sonic then Shadow and Knuckles, down his list of friends until no-one was left alive. Tails had ignored Dr. Robotnik for most of the rant, that was until the doctor told the kit how he was going to accomplish the feat. It was after Ivo mentioned the robot did the young fox realize what his cage was standing next to. Metal had grabbed Tails from behind as the new information had been sinking in, and slammed the young fox into the metal shell of Voulchine so hard the breath whooshed from his chest. That was when the pain started.

Tails shivered with the memory. The truth was being in the robot was just as hard for Tails as it was for Sonic. The robot had immediately connected to Tails spinal cord, giving the robot access to every though and memory in Tails' head; his brain had been an open book for the cold, and thoughtless robot to peruse at it's leisure. Being physically and mentally linked to the robot hurt the fox both in body and mind. He was still nauseous from being un hooked from Voulchine.

The actual fight with Sonic wasn't a walk in the park either. Tails could see in his mind what the robot was planning, how it was going to use the information from the foxes head against the blue blur. He never wanted to have those thoughts in his head; plans of attack to be used to harm or kill his best friend.

The orange fox sighed, hoping his friends would be able to save him soon; he wasn't sure he was strong enough to handle being hooked to that _Thing_ too many more times.

* * *

Sonic clapped his hands: the battle meeting adjourned "Alright so everyone savvy with the plan? Good. Everyone lets get ready to bunk down for the night, girls can take the guest room, and everyone else first come first serve. Now Antoine you're on first watch, just watch the hologram, watch for anyone coming or going from the cell where Tails is. Wake us immediately if someone comes or goes. Wake someone up to take your place in an hour, okay?" Sonic said turning to the coyote.

Antoine saluted him, "I vill do mai best."

Sonic turned to the others. "Alright Everyone get plenty of sleep, we've got an early start tomorrow."

* * *

**note: mais is French for 'but' oh and expect there to be more French from 'Twan in the future ^^ yes I'm typing his accent XD BTW for those who have followed my story from the start, I've gone back and re-writen part of chapter four.**

**critiques are welcome with open arm (so are reviews BD)**


	6. The Base

**WWN: Sorry about the wait. So to make up for it, here's a nice loooong chapter X3**

**Darkside: -rolls eyes-**

**WWN: I don't want to hear it DS.**

**WWN: and without further ado, Chapter 6.**

**-**Chapter 6-

The group of Mobians arrived at Robotniks lair early the next morning. They slowly crept along the bases wall, being careful not to be detected by the outer security motion sensors.

"Aha!" Rouge exclaimed form the front of the line. She had located the sloppily hidden (in her oppinion) air intake vent just above the ground. "Yo, Knuckle-head, come help me remove this!" she hissed pionting at the grate. Grumbling, Knuckles grudgingly followed the bats insructions. In his oppinion, he should have just puched his way throught the stupid grate, but instead the echidna did what Rouge called 'the smart thing' and forcefully but quietly pulled the grate free of its housing in the wall.

One by one, the line of mobians disapeared into the dark depths of the air duct. Crawling on hands and knees, or in Vectors case army style, the group navigated through the ventilation sytem led by the female bat. After seveal twists and turns and even a vertical escapade, the troop emerged into a stretch of vent that was illuminated at the far end. The buxom bat stopped short of the grate and turned to face the others.

Sonic spoke up "Okay, you guys all know what you're job is once we leave the vent right?" he asked quietly.

The goup nodded as a whole.

"Rouge and I are to break into the secruity room and silence the alarms so they do not go off as we move about the base." Espio said, Rouge nodded in affirmation.

"Shadow and I are to check out the cell block on the second level." Vector pipped up. Sonic nodded and bointed at Bunnie.

"Don't worry shugah-hog, Pinky-pie and I are going to check for lil'shugah in the cell block on the ground level." the half cyborg said motioning to Amy and herself.

"Right and Knuckles and I are going to check for Tails in the Max security cell on the underground level." Knuckle nodded as Sonic explined thier job.

"All right, every group has their radio coms set to channel three?" Once again they nodded. Sonic reached up and turned his headset radio on. "How's it looking 'Twan, Charmy?" Antione and Charmy had been asigned to stay behind to keep survalence over the blue print and warn the groups of impending danger, and to make sure Tails wasn't removed from any of the cells. "Le coast es clear. I do not see any robots near your position." "Yeah, all clear guys." The coytes and bees voices traveled through the radio to the Blue Blurr.

Sonic nodded to Rouge who nodded in return. Espio shimmied his way to the opening of the vent as Rouge removed the grate. Espio lept out first, Rouge turned to the others, "Wait for our signal, then move fast and don't get lost."

"Psh, that's not going to happen. Only an idiot would get lost." Knuckles scoffed. The night before each team had memorized the fastest route to their goal and the fastest route to the rondez-vouz piont.

Sonic nodded to the bat and chamaleon. "Good luck guys. You know what's at stake." and with that said the duo took off towards the control room. The blue hedgehog looked up at the group. "Okay guys, it's now or never. We've got to get Tails today, If we fail and try to come back later Robotnik will be expecting it, and we might never get him back." Everyones faces grew solum and hard, exept Shadow, who wore his ever present scowl.

With no more needed to be said, they lasped into silence.

* * *

Rouge and Espio quickly made their way to the control center of Robotniks' base. Rouge was flying close to the ceiling, above the sensors; while Espio was doing what a chameleon does best: blending in with the surroundings. Rouge had explained the night before that because of his ability to change colors, the alarm would not be tripped. She had seen systems like this: the security computers relied on both heat and motion in oder to go off, so with Espio not showing any movement, the heat signiture would not register.

In a matter of minutes the duo was standing outside a door labeled SECURITY. Rouge opened a vent grate over the door; letting them inside the ventilation shaft; from there they traveled above the room. Peeking into the room through another vent, they saw that the room was empty aside from the wall to wall computers. Espio opened the grate and was about to jump out when Rouge cought his arm.

"Whoa there buddy, the room's empty but there are sensors here just like everywhere else. Jump down like that and they'll know we're here." Espios shocked face slid into a determined one. Silently he changed colors to match the ceilings slightly less depressing shade of grey. He slid from the vent, clung to the ceiling and slowly made his way to the closest wall. He used the same method to travel down to the floor level.

"I'll guide you from here." the bat told the invisible chamelion. "Alright, see that computer that has the blue screen with the white writing, making the anoying noise? Next to it is a grey box. Open it and _quickly_ cut the red and blue wires." She watched as the box opend with a quiet _bang_ and the wires mentioned were severed. "Okay, you're clear. Those were the main power cords for the heat and motion sensors." Into the radio she said: "Okay Sonic, you've got the green."

* * *

Charmy cluched his stingning cheek and glared at Antione who had just slapped him "Whaddya do that for!" He demanded of the french cyote.

"I vilh not tollerate you speakeng about Mademioselle Bunnie en such a mannar!" 'Twan fummed.

The litte bee was astounded. "What manner! All I said was she was pretty good looking for a half robot, and that she had a nice aft! What's the big de-" Charmy froze Realization hitting him like a fish to a persons head: hard, fast, and fairly amusing. A sneaky little smile crept and grew on his small face.

"Wvaht!" Demanded the cyote, angered further by the smirk.

Charmy sniggered behind his hand and pionted with the other. "You like miss Bunnie!" Antione's face burned deep scarlet from anger and embarrasment. Charmy knew he struck a cord.

Contunuing on his anoying tangent, he began to sing "Antione and Bunnie sitting in a tree: K-I-S-S-IIIEEEE!" Antione lept across the table at the small bee and attempted to throttle him. A voice emminated from the radio as the cyote landed on top of it, but it went unnoticed by both.

"Nah-nah! No good trying that!"Charmy said as he hovered just out of the angry cyotes reach Antione, who was standing on the table, had briefly and accidentlly pushed the talk button on the radio unknowingly. The small bee took off into the livingroom, the angry Antione tearing after in persiut. Neither of them watching the blueprints. Within the hologram several red dots entered a room and a few seconds later left with a single blue one.

* * *

"Okay Sonic, you've got the green." came Rouges voice through Sonics radio. The blue hedgehog picked it up "Chamy, 'Twan, come in. How's it looking?" Dead air filled the radio for a moment before Charmy's voice cut in. "...good-!...".

"Alright guys, let's do this!" Sonic said to the assembled mobians behind him. They piled out of the vent and went thier seperate ways. The girls ran down the hall to the right as the two groups of boys went left past the security room to the stairway. Once at the unused stairs they split again: Vector and Shadow going up while Sonic and Knuckles went down.

* * *

Bunnie and Amy traveled quickly down the hall; the cells they were to check were reletivly close to the vent they'd just left. To the surprise of both girls the hall was clear of robots, just as Charmy had said. They stopped infront of the first of the three cells, Bunnie stepped up to the keypad next to the door, paw at her chin, thinking hard.

Amy's gaze traveled form Bunnie to the keypad. "Do you think you can figure out the code, Bunnie?" She aked after a few moments of silence.

"Nope." Bunnie said as she pulled her robotic arm back and smashed her fist into the keypad. With a small disgruntled beep the door opened.

"Huh, I didn't really think that would work." Bunnie said as she walked past a shocked Amy into the cell.

* * *

As Vector and Shadow ran, their radio came to life. "Bun-Bun to Shugah-hog, the cell blocks on the ground level are all empty." Bunnies voice rang out from the device. Sonic's voice replied "Okay, good job Bunnie, you and Amy get to the rondez-vous piont and wait for the rest of us. Rouge and Espio should already be there."

"Rodger that Shugah-hog."

Vector looked at Shadow who was holding the radio. "Well three down, four to go, eh?"

Shadow mearly nodded. _Man_ thought Vector _what does it take to get this guy to talk?_

After several minutes of silence the hedgehog and crocadile arrived at their destination.

Shadow stepped up to the first door and pulled a chaos emerald from the safe haven of his quills.

With a cry of "Chaos control!" Shadow vanished for several minutes before re-appearing next to Vector, startling him.

"Geez, warn a guy before poofing in like that, would ya?" Vector grumbled.

Shadow glared at him "And how exactly can I 'warn a guy' if I'm not there? And I don't _poof_."

Vector rolled his eyes "What ever. Was Tails in one of the cells?"

Shadow rubbed the bridge of his nose. "If he was in there, wouldn't I have brought him with me?"

"Well I didn't know you could poof around with other people!" Vector exclaimed loudly and angrily.

"I. Don't. **Poof**!" Shadow growled, louder than before.

"What. Ev. ER!" Vector growled as he snatched the radio from shadows hand.

* * *

Sonic and Knuckles had just left the stairway and was on their way to the final cell to be checked when their radio went off. It was Bunnie. Tails wasn't in their cell block.

After the hedgehog got off the radio with her, Knuckles spoke for the fist time since the vent.

"Guess that means it's our cell or one of Shaows."

Sonic nodded.

A few moments later The radio buzzed to life again. It was Vector this time.

"Sonic, Tails wasn't in our cell block. Guess it's up to you guys. See you at the rondez-vous piont."

"Ten-four, Vec. See ya round." The blue blurr replied. "Guess it's up to us." He told Knuckels who nodded.

Picking up speed they arived at the single maximum security prison cell minutes after Vectors call in.

"Stand back."

The echidna did so as Sonic Spindashed into the door. But the attempt was fruitless; he had only mannaged a slight scratch in the metal.

"Well it would take forever to cut through the door, so lets try this!" he said as he Spindashed the keypad set into the wall next to the cell door. With a small beep, the cell door swung outwards on silent hinges.

The cell within was large, with only a circle of light illuminating a small portion of floor; the rest of the room was ringed in thick, black shadow. Sitting within the pool of light was what looked like a small black collar.

Shrugging Sonic stepped over the threshold into the room followed by the echidna.

"Tails?" the hedgehog called out tentitivly.

Without warning a hand shot out from the deepest shadows, and for Sonic, everything seemed to speed up: The hand shot out, scooped up the collar, and snapped it around knuckels neck. The force of the blow sent the echidna flying back. Then suddenly everything seemed to suddenly be in slow motion: Knuckles flew back, eyes wide and mouth open in silent astonishment, over the cells threshold. A beep from the collar, a red light, and a bone jarring explosion.

* * *

**Haha! Robotnik has the blue screen of death!**

**Guess who! And yes, I'm leaving you at a nice little cliff hanger.**

**Ain't I a stinker. B**


End file.
